Interview

ARTIST OF THE WEEK: Shyam P

today07/06/2024

Background

Clint Maximus caught up with Dubai based Singer & Songwriter Shyam P as he continues his ascent through dance music after repeatedly featuring on global record labels with his memorable vocals.

 

Shyam P, tell us bit about yourself and where you think singing and songwriting came into your life, and how Ibiza inspired you? 

I’m Shyam P, I’m a singer and songwriter for house & electronic music. My love of house music started probably over 15 years ago, when I started going out, partying, raving in London, and I went to Ibiza for the first time.

I think from going out and spending time in Ibiza and getting to go clubbing in places like DC-10 and Space, I just had the buzz for being more creative and working in music. I remember sitting at an after party with one of my mates, and we listened to a track on Ibiza Sonica, and he said to me “that sounds like you, you should sing on tracks.” So when I got back after that trip, I just got a basic home set up with a mic and started writing on tracks, because I was listening to mixes when I was in the gym, or like listening to mixes when I was with friends… I started to get to know what types of music, the types of sounds that I liked, And then the labels I want to release with. It all started from there.

 

What is a typical songwriting process for you?

What is that process of actually sitting there and actually getting lyrics down for a single? I mean, it depends really. But for me, I like to write over the tracks. I think some writers, you know, they might pen words and write lyrics. Personally I just like getting the studio turning a decent groove and loop on, once I catch a vibe to it, I start writing.  What then tends to happen is that I’ll probably end up doing three or four different sessions on that same track, going back to it with fresh ears, tighten things up.

Obviously collaborating with producers, bouncing off each other different ideas is an important one. I’m never precious about what I do. So especially at the beginning when I started working in music and writing music and releasing music, there’s a lot of tracks that I was making that I wasn’t happy with, that I’d throw away.

Nowadays, that happens a lot less. But the process is really just getting in the studio, feeling the groove, feeling the vibe, and just writing and seeing what comes out.

 

How do your collaborations come about?

At the beginning, it was a case of me finding the labels that I love, the artists that I love, and I’d reach out to them. I’d listen to Sam Divine’s, Defected, or Toolroom shows, and I’d be listening to producers I’ve not heard before, and reaching out to them like on Instagram, just DMimg them to ask for a collab. A lot of time I’d get responses, and often those turned into collaborations.

Nowadays, it’s amazing. I’m very blessed, because I get a lot of approaches from artists, management, and labels who want to collaborate and get me involved. I’m a lot more careful about what what I jump on nowadays.

Then in terms of the actual collaboration process, it’s amazing because I’ve written and released a lot of music with people that I’ve never met. We’ve worked online on WhatsApp, the process works similarly to being in the studio in person, in the sense that you bounce ideas off each other, you can send notes, send clips.

I tend to find that now, the producers that I’ve really loved working with, that we’ve made great music together, I continue to make more and more music with those same guys.

 

Lets talk about your album, More Than Art and Science, which has just dropped. What was the process of getting that body of work together?

Yeah, so this was a really, really special project. It’s been three years in the making, working with Moon Rocket. He’s very well established DJ, producer, musician in deep house music, he’s got his own label, Moon Rocket Music. I connected with him after he remixed one of my tracks on Nervous records a few years back. I loved what he was doing on the piano as a real musician, you know, playing keys, DJing, and his production was amazing. We teamed up and started to build this album together.

For me, what it was about and what we really aligned on was that it wasn’t just a collection of lots of different tracks. This was about us trying to find our sound together. That’s why there’s no features on the album at all, it’s just me and me and Moon Rocket. It was all about us trying to create this piece of work, this record that kept with our roots within house music, deep house, but then also with some crossover. It’s called More Than Art and Science and it’s out now.

We’re really thankful to everybody supporting, we’ve had some Spotify editorial love and support, and there’s been some great global coverage as well, it’s been amazing. The full album is on iTunes and Spotify, and there’s extended mixes available on Beatport and Traxsource as well.

 

Congratulations on your recent release on All Day I Dream label with Fulltone.

Going back to your question earlier about working with artists, Fulltone was one of those artists who I’ve loved his music for years. Like I’ve listened to his music and I’ve always thought he was one of the best producers when it comes to that organic, deep sound. I reached out to him to say, hey, we should get on a tune. He was like, great, let’s let’s do something together and sent me this track. We finished it and he said he was going to send it straight to Lee Burridge from All Day I Dream. And I was like, amazing. And then a couple of days later, it was like they wanted to sign it. It was such a great vibe, and this track turned into one of the tracks on the Alba EP. All Day I Dream is an amazing label and I love their parties. We popped in and I got to meet Lee at the All Day I Dream party when they were here in Dubai last month.

 

Outside of your musical releases you also have a project for DJ’s and producers to promote their music, can you tell us about that?

A few years ago through this journey of mine being in music, we created something called SpinVid. It’s an app for DJs and producers and record labels to be able to quickly and easily get their music seen and heard, by creating spinning videos on their phone. So we’ve now got 10,000 global users. I think it’s becoming a very, very important tool for DJs, artists, producers, record labels to be able to promote their music on socials quickly. The app’s going from strength to strength. If you get a chance, if you’re a DJ, producer or artist and you want to promote your music and you want to do it for free, check out SpinVid. It’s available on the App Store and Google as well.

 

What are your future plans, projects? What’s in the pipeline over the next few months? 

Absolutely. Lots of new music coming. I’ve got another one coming with Harry Romero. The next release is going to be on Libero Records with Kai Creighton with a remix from Kodework, which is fire. So that’s going to be dropping next month.

I’ve also got a really cool track in the pipeline with a guy called Daniel Orpi, who is really blowing up at the moment. That should hopefully coming out at end of this year. I’m also working with the amazing Hartley, who’s a local DJ who’s making some serious waves, playing some really cool gigs, and obviously a resident here with you guys on Pure 94.7.

Outside of that, I’m working on some new music following up from the album with Moon Rocket as well.

Written by: Nicole Little

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